The Lone Elm

Ramen Inventor Dies at 96

According to FoxNews, the Japanese inventor of instant noodles, Momofuko Ando died at the ripe age of 96.  Mr. Ando introduced the first instant Chicken Ramen in 1958. Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish of Chinese origin.  The Japanese Convenience Food Manufacturers have an interesting background about instant ramen.  My son prefers a very spicy Korean version, Shin Ramen.

Wal Mart and Organic Food

Michael Pollan has written an interesting piece in the New York Times discussing the implications of Wal Mart's entry into the organic food market.  My personal view is that "organic" is better than not organic, both for the land and for us.  I agree, however with a comment at Outside the Beltway that the result will be various producers working to differentiate their organic product from the mass-produced, transported from a distance product that shows up at Wal Mart.  I don't think that organic food is elitist in a socioeconomic sense  -- there are plenty of wealthy people who don't care about whether they eat organic or not.  For those of us who care about where the food we eat comes from, perhaps we are elitist, but so be it. 

Organic at Wal Mart

The New Yorker has a good wrap up of the latest on the organic food biz.  The big news is that Wal-Mart is going to provide organic choices to its customers, no doubt seriously changing the economics of organic food production.  See articles at Boston.Com, the New York Times, and BBC. But, some wonder about the impact on producers and on consumers.  Already, demand for organic food has led to the mega-organic farming operations, such as Earthbound Farms. Is food from these large organic operations any "better" than non-organic produced food?  My personal view is that the farming methods have to be better in order to meet the organic standards, so our environment and the earth remain in better conditions. That alone is worth buying organic.   However, I believe that the best source of our food is from local farmers who, ideally, are producing organic or near organic meat, vegetables. The Eat Well Guide is a quick way to find local suppliers. See this interview in the San Francisco Chronicle with Michael Pollan about supporting local agriculture.   I look forward to reading Michael Pollan's new book on sustainable farming, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, discussed in the New Yorker article and reviewed at the New York Times.  Catherine Price visits Michael Pollan at home, and discovers that his refrigerator matches up with what he says. 

Children's Cookbooks

I just found another copy of Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls, a spiral bound book dating from 1957. I remember as a kid making various wonderful things from this book, including sloppy joes, open-faced hamburgers, cinnamon rolls using Bisquick (that one was very, very, popular), molasses crinkles, and these especially cool cupcakes in colored ice cream cones.  Alice Ross has written a very informative history of children's cookbooks that you can find here.

Bring on the Butter....

The New York Times reports that a very large and long study concludes that a low-fat diet will not make a statistical difference in whether women get heart-disease or cancer.   Yippee!  See also Washington Post. The suggestion is that other factors such as eating vegetables, whole grains, and high quality fats is important, but, of course, this study didn't evaluate those factors.  See comments at Feministe .  Echinidne notes a comment of a researcher who wants to pursue a statistically insignificant reduction in breast cancer and the low-fat diet.

Hot Sauces

The Sapling has taken to applying Tobasco to his morning eggs at school.  However, he now thinks he needs more bang, especially on those mornings when he needs to sing right after breakfast!  (Perhaps we should make up some of this "Sinus-Aid Hot Sauce.") To start, it's worth reading the Wikipedia bacgrounder on the Scoville scale, which measures the "heat" of hot pepper sauces.  The top of the line is 16 million Scoville units (pure capsaicin), while Tobasco peppers (not the sauce) run 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units.  Today's Chemist describes how Scoville units are measured with chromatography. 

One resource that looks good is the Hot Sauce Blog, which includes a photo of a bottle of the ultimate (apparently) Blair's B-99, which is decorated with exquisite squiggles of wax on the top of the bottle.  If you want to make your own hot sauce, here is a kit - they even have different types of pepper mashes!  For those with less energy, try out Mo Hotta Mo Betta a compendium of hot food items, with some very nice "baskets" of sauces so you can try out more than one.  Should I send The Sapling The Pain in the Ass Sampler or the Hot Stuff Valentine Day collection?  Or maybe Dave's Mini Bottles so he can carry his sauce surreptiously and not worry about refrigeration?  Or, is he brave enough for the Hottest Sauces on Earth sampler?  Stay tuned.

Chinese New Year is Here - Time to make Jiaozi!

Time to clean house and prepare for the Spring Festival In China, things are shut down for at least one week during the celebration.  See Wangjianshuo's blog for the view of his computer.  He says offices will reopen Feb 5.  Stories From China has a wonderful entry describing the history of this festival and the traditional celebrations.

Tonight we're going to make home-made dumplings with the Bunny Rabbit who was born in Hunan Province. Jiaozi are boiled dumplings.  According to TravelChinaGuide, this is the story of jiaozi:

"A well-loved story tells how long ago during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) a doctor named  Zhang Zhongjing travelled back to his hometown in the county of Nanyang. He found the people were suffering from an outbreak of typhoid and dying from hunger and cold. In fact the weather was so cold that many had frostbitten ears to add to their troubles. The kindly doctor set about concocting a mixture of mutton, cayenne and a special medicine that he wrapped in a piece of ear-shaped dough. The dumplings he created were fed to the starving people and by New Year's Eve, not only were they saved from the typhoid epidemic but also their frost bitten ears were healed. The doctor's fame became legendary and thus the dumpling became a favourite addition to the Chinese diet."

Here is a fabulous photo of a Chinese woman making lots of jiaozi.   See also the English Channel of CCTV for background and photos, and a nice steaming graphic of jiaozi ready to eat!

Here are several recipes for Jiaozi:  Worldwide Gourmet (I think the dough needs a little salt! but it has a good picture); a more traditional method at Cooks.com (including the adding cold water and bringing to another boil, and shaping dough by hand rather than rolling out like cookie dough); another traditional recipe at cdkitchen.com; see also Globaldreamers' recipe. Here is a recipe using premade wrappers, but some good pictures and discussion of when jiaozi are eaten in China.    I'm expecting to have fun making Chinese food for a couple of weeks!

One good place to stay up on the latest news from China is the China Syndrome at Pajamas Media.   

What Waiting Tables is Really Like...

The New York Times has a fun, behind-the-scenes article on a reporter's first-hand experience waiting tables at the East Coast Grill (Cambridge MA) for a week.  (This is all much better than their editorial on Alito....)  After reading this, I'm sure we'll all try to treat our waiters better?

Getting Closer to Our Food

Mark Thoma at Economist's View talks about how the political divide between conservatives and liberals can be narrowed over the topic of where we get our food from  He refers to a January 4, 2006 New York Times article by Marian Burros discussing how Oregonians are successfully obtaining "local" food and the associated success of the New Seasons chain of grocery stores in the Portland area.  New Seasons provides locally grown meat to its customers, and extraordinary personal service.  Employees are empowered to "do anything a customer wants."  Burros also refers to Michael Pollan who points out that industrialized organic food is not much of an improvement over standard non-organic supplies.   Pollan has written a fascinating article titled "Power Steer" (originally in the New York Times) about the life cycle of typical beef cattle -- definitely inspires me to keep working at obtaining local, grass-fed beef!

If You're Thinking About Cooking a Goose....

Here's a wonderful story about what-not-to-do and what-to-do from David Leite at Leite's Culinaria (which is a great recipe website).